The in Our Time Podcast - Melvin Erdos and the Prime Number Theorem

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Eredos was one of the two people who solved, came up with what's called an elementary proof of the prime number theorem. He once said that if a malevolent race came to attack the earth and said they would kill us all if we didn't tell them how many people at a party for five had to know each other or not known each other. And Eredos added: "If there are only cheerful computers on the world then it will be our way"

Paul Erdős (1913 – 1996) is one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the 20th century. During his long career, he made a number of impressive advances in our understanding of maths and developed whole new fields in the subject.

He was born into a Jewish family in Hungary just before the outbreak of World War I, and his life was shaped by the rise of fascism in Europe, anti-Semitism and the Cold War. His reputation for mathematical problem solving is unrivalled and he was extraordinarily prolific. He produced more than 1,500 papers and collaborated with around 500 other academics.

He also had an unconventional lifestyle. Instead of having a long-term post at one university, he spent much of his life travelling around visiting other mathematicians, often staying for just a few days.

With

Colva Roney-Dougal Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews

Timothy Gowers Professor of Mathematics at the College de France in Paris and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

and

Andrew Treglown Associate Professor in Mathematics at the University of Birmingham

The image above shows a graph occurring in Ramsey Theory. It was created by Dr Katherine Staden, lecturer in the School of Mathematics at the Open University.